


A Survey of Pins Worn by Citizens of the (Permanently Provisional) Republic of Two Systems

by lurknomoar



Series: Bits and Pieces and Older Writings [4]
Category: Imperial Radch Series - Ann Leckie
Genre: Gen, a list of fragmentary stories, pins are important
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-24
Updated: 2019-09-24
Packaged: 2020-10-21 17:54:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,302
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20697620
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lurknomoar/pseuds/lurknomoar
Summary: Every pin tells a story.





	A Survey of Pins Worn by Citizens of the (Permanently Provisional) Republic of Two Systems

In the years following the war...

  * Breq notices that other people began wearing memorial pins for Lieutenant Awn. At first, she is dismayed by what she sees as perfunctory copies of her very personal grief, but eventually, she accepts that people are merely paying their respects to one of the heroes whose death led to the creation of their Republic.
  * Other memorial pins begin to appear: translucent pentagons of reddish glass in remembrance of Garsedd. A stylized number one glyph in remembrance of Nyseme Ptem, One Amaat One of Ime Station. Little four-petalled flowers for memory of Shis’urna. An enamelled tealeaf spattered with drops of bright enamel blood, paying homage to the previous resistance movements on Athoek.
  * There is an increasing amount of pins with Anaander Mianaai’s name on them, which seems troubling until one takes a closer look and realizes that the printed border indicates the pin is a reminder of someone dead, and the cheap tin material suggests a distant, junior member of one’s house whose death is only commemorated out of reluctant courtesy. The pin is an insult, a joke, a shared laugh at the expense of a tyrant whose power they have escaped.
  * Many seek to show their enthusiastic support for their new system by wearing pins that refer to it. But since the Republic of Two Systems has no official crest, the symbols vary. The most common one is the initials RoTS in shiny wire mesh, followed closely by pins of egg-shaped opals, but many prefer the icon of a little ghost rising from a teacup to indicate the Ghost System and Athoek respectively.
  * Religious pins are not infrequent: cheap little enamel emanations are in vogue, especially Esk for beginnings, and the quietly triumphant Vahn, for existence. Offering-pins for gods abound, especially since all the people who were stranded at Athoek when the gates came down brought their own gods with them. There’s even a renewed cult of She Who Sprang From The Lily, to Breq’s bafflement. And of course the temple of mysteries puts out little pins of neon-coloured genitalia to mark its acolytes.
  * Outsystem Radchaai still wear pins on their coats, Athoeki wear them on their sashes. Quite a few people who did not wear pin before pick up the habit, deciding that it’s one of the few Radchaai customs that’s possible to adopt without forcing one’s self into full assimilation. Of course they wear the pins somewhat differently, after their own fashion. Most Valskaayan people wear theirs on their headcoverings, pinned into the cloth over the brows and temple: it doesn’t get in the way, and lets them take off their outer jackets without removing the pins. Ychana tend to wear theirs on the satchel that forms a part of their habitual wear, and the order in which pins are placed on the satchel’s strap carries its own significance. There are even some downplanet communities who begin wearing pins in their naked hair, using them to secure and decorate their braids.
  * Sphene followed the Notai custom in it previous life, marking each of its officers with the gem it was named after. Ages have passed since then, the world has changed, and it had had to trade away most of its store of precious stones. But it still makes sure to recast an old pin with officer’s markings and a yellow sphene gem, so that Head Engineer Queter can wear it on her brow. Sphene doesn’t have a captain, and it does not need a captain, not at the moment. But it’s glad to have found a capable if gruff engineer who helps it run smoother than it has in millennia.
  * Mercy of Kalr doesn’t do pins. It’s a person, but it doesn’t need to be human, it doesn’t need to do human things. That said, it does one day suggest that Seivarden wear a dully gleaming pin fashioned from one of its discarded vacuum seals, more for her benefit than its. Strictly speaking, Seivarden isn’t in a relationship with Ship, but she _is _ship very often, far more often than anyone else, often enough that they have learned each other inside and out. And that does deserve a pin of some sort.
  * Basnaaid does not mention it to Breq, but one day she pins a small bright piece of moissanite on the up-turned collar of her coat, and she never takes it off. Only those who lean in close to examine it notice that it’s in the shape of an incisor.
  * Kalr Five helps Sphene to repair the shattered Notai teaset, and partly as thanks, partly as a reward for her persistence, she is left with the unfixable bits in her possession. She picks out one of the bigger shards of blue glass, rounds off the sharp edges, and wears it on her lapel. It doesn’t signify a memory or a connection, but it quietly implies both.
  * After a few years spent on the same station, Uran and Tisarwat somehow become frenemies, or possibly frenemies with benefits. Uran saves her meagre administrator’s salary for months just to buy Tisarwat a huge and insultingly gaudy pin with a stone the exact colour of her lilac eyes. It means ‘I like going out with you for drinks and having loud political arguments until we’re thrown out onto the concourse.’ Tisarwat responds by pretending not to be insulted, and wearing it with aplomb. Soon afterwards, she buys Uran a sleek, elegant pin made out of spun glass and far too brittle for everyday wear. Uran sprays it with vacuum-proof sealing spray, making it unbreakable but a dull dark grey instead of its original subtle planetrise pink.
  * Tisarwat also exchanges pins with Piat, pretty standard platinum buttons of fond friendship. Piat appreciates having a friend who is sort of manipulative, but at least honest and cheerful about it, and Tisarwat finds it really calming to set politics aside once in a while and talk plants with Piat.
  * After Tisarwat spends half a year working her ass off to pass legislation that will award Basnaaid sufficient funding to rebuild the Gardens properly, she receives the gift of a pin. It is gold, with a beautiful glass charm of protection, something you might give to a younger sister, a baby cousin. Tisarwat secretly cries her eyes out over the realisation that Basnaaid will never take her seriously as a romantic option, but the next day she gets her act together and says a solemn thank-you. Out of everyone on the Mercy of Kalr, maybe everyone on the station, Tisarwat ends up with the most pins. The chestpiece and both shoulders of her coat are covered with proof of her friendships and alliances, with a few left over for her left sleeve. It makes her feel proud and a little sad at the same time.
  * Seivarden is terribly shy and awkward for a week before she musters to courage to give Ekalu a small pin. It is a cheap, factory-made pin with an unpretentious jade set in it – jade, which in Seivarden’s time meant respectful, adoring love. Ekalu does not know this, but she knows it cost Seivarden a lot to make the gesture, and it cost her even more to refrain from hiding her uncertainty behind a flashy, expensive gift. So she wears it in the spirit it was intended, and a few days later leaves a pin on Seivarden’s bed, a pin fashioned from a religious charm, and even though the small sculpture only shows the face and not the proverbial tits, it’s clearly Aatr, protector of children, finder of the lost.
  * Translator Zeiat doesn’t really get it. First she tries to pin live fish on people she likes, and when that fails, she settles for whittling and twisting random objects into stylized fishes and giving those out.


End file.
